1 Samuel 2
1MY heart was strengthened by the Lord;
By my God, my horn was exalted;
Over my enemies my mouth was enlarged;
I was made glad by Thy salvation.
2Because there is none holy like the Lord,
And none is righteous like our God,
There is none holy besides Thee.
3Boast not, nor speak haughtily,
Let not arrogance proceed from your mouth.
Because the Lord is a God of all knowledge—
A God who prepareth His own designs;
4The bow of the mighty He hath made weak.
And the weak have girded themselves with strength:
5They who were full of bread have been brought low;
And they who were hungry have reached land.
For she who was barren hath born seven children;
And she who abounded in children hath been made weak.
6The Lord killeth, and giveth life;
He bringeth down to the grave, and raiseth up.
7The Lord impoverisheth, and maketh rich;
He humbleth, and He exalteth on high.
8He lifteth up the needy from the ground;
And raiseth the beggar from a dunghill;
To seat them among a people’s princes;
And He causeth them to possess a throne of glory.
9He granteth the petitioner his prayer,
And hath blessed the years of the righteous;
Because a man is not mighty in strength,
10The Lord will make his adversary weak.
Holy is the Lord.
Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom,
Nor the mighty man boast of his power;
Nor let the rich man boast of his riches:
But let him who boasteth, boast of this—
That the Lord understandeth, and knoweth,
And that He executeth judgment and justice in the land.
The Lord ascended up to heaven and thundered;
He will judge the highest on earth: To our kings He giveth power,
And He will exalt the horn of His anointed.
11So she left the child there before the Lord, and returned to Armathaim; and the child ministered in the presence of the Lord before Eli the priest.
12Now the sons of Eli, the priest, were wicked men. They did not know the Lord;
13nor what was the priest’s due from the people—from all who offered a sacrifice;
14but the servant of the priest would come when the flesh was boiling; and having a three-pronged flesh fork in his hand, would strike it into the great cauldron, or into the brass kettle, or into the pot; and all that came up with the flesh fork the priest took for himself. In this manner they did to all the Israelites who came to sacrifice to the Lord at Selom.
15And before the suet was burned, the priest’s servant would come, and say to the man who was sacrificing, Give me flesh to roast for the priest, for I will not take boiled flesh from thee out of the kettle.
16And if the man who was sacrificing said, Let the suet first be burned according to the ritual, then take for thyself any piece thy soul desireth; he would say, No; thou shalt give it me now. And if not, I will take it by force.
17So that the sin of these young men was very great before the Lord; because they set at naught the sacrifice of the Lord.
18But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child girded with a linen ephod.
19And his mother made for him a little doublet, and brought it up for him every year, when she came up with her husband, to offer their annual sacrifice.
20Now Eli had blessed Elkana, and his wife saying, The Lord grant thee seed from this woman in return for the loan which thou hast lent to the Lord.
21And when the man returned to his place the Lord visited Anna, and she bore three sons more, and two daughters. But the lad Samuel grew up before the Lord.
22Now Eli was very old; and when he heard what his sons did to the children of Israel,
23he said to them, Why do you act in the manner I hear from the mouth of all the people of the Lord?
24Do not so my sons; for the reports which I hear are not good, that the people cannot serve God.
25If one man sin against another, intercession can be made for him to the Lord; but if he sin against the Lord, who can intercede for him? But they hearkened not to the voice of their father, wherefore the Lord determined to destroy them.
26But the child Samuel proceeded onward, and was in favour with the Lord, and with men.
27And there came a man of God to Eli and said, Thus saith the Lord, I revealed Myself clearly to the house of thy father, when they were servants to the house of Pharao, in the land of Egypt.
28And I chose the house of thy father out of all the sceptres of Israel, to serve Me in the priest’s office, to go up to My altar, and to burn incense, and wear an ephod; and I gave the house of thy father all the burnt offerings of the children of Israel for meat.
29Why then hast thou looked with an impudent eye on My incense offerings, and on My sacrifice of flour, and honoured thy sons above Me, by indulging them with the dedicated part of every sacrifice of Israel, in preference to Me?
30For this cause, thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I said, Thy house and the house of thy father shall go out before Me forever; but now the Lord saith, Far be this from Me; for I will honour them only who honour Me. And he who despiseth Me shall be despised.
31Behold the days are coming when I will root out thy seed, and the seed of thy father’s house;
32so that thou shalt not have an old man in thy house forever.
33A chief man indeed for thee I will not cut off from My altar; that his eyes may fail and his soul melt; but all the rest of thy house shall fall by the sword of men.
34And this which shall come upon thy two sons, shall be a sign to thee. Ophni and Phineas shall both be put to death on the same day.
35And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, who shall do all that is in My heart and in My mind; and I will build for him a faithful house, and he shall go out before My anointed forever.
36And it shall be, that he who is left in thy house, will come to bow down before him, for a piece of silver, saying, Put me into one of the priestly offices that I may eat bread.